This invention relates to a glove made of chain mail fabric, composed of an interlaced metal ring network, which is designed to protect the hand and possibly the forearm or the arm of an operator running the risk of being injured further to using sharp or cutting tools.
Gloves made of chain mail of this type are for example described in the documents FR-A-2 748 908, FR-A-2 753 883, FR-A-2 771 260, U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,126 or still DE-U-93 05286.3; they are in particular widespread in the meat industry, notably in the cutting stations.
Such gloves may be <<simple>> i.e. made of a main part designed to cover only the user's hand and wrist. In more sophisticated models, the portion which covers the wrist may be extended by a cuff-link made of plastic material or of chain mail fabric, covering the forearm and possibly the arm. In case when it is made of chain mail fabric, the protective cuff-link portion is fitted with plastic or metal longitudinal stiffeners to hold it correctly on the user's member without sagging on the wrist and the hand.
For good holding on the hand, the <<simple>> gloves are fitted with a cinching strap at the wrist; for protective cuff-link gloves made of chain mail, a first cinching strap on the wrist is generally associated with a second strap, of identical or different structure, provided at the end of the cuff-link.
For greater comfort, these gloves are shaped in order to match ideally the contour of the hand; moreover the adjustment and/or locking members of the cinching straps are adapted in order to be positioned above the wrist or the forearm.
But this involves quite generally providing different gloves to fit the right hands and the left hands of the users.
Gloves made of so-called <<ambidextrous>> chain mail have been designed (see notably the documents U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,126 or FR-A-2 771 260), but the corresponding ambidextrous character is obtained by turning the glove over; and it is then quite often necessary to provide holding and catching means for the cinching straps, on either side of the chain mail fabric (i.e. inside and outside the glove), which increases the complexity of manufacture of the product and which is detrimental because of the presence of bulges and/or protruding members.